Bamidbar 14:13

13 And Moshe said unto Hashem, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for Thou broughtest up this people in Thy ko’ach [might] from among them;)

Bamidbar 14:13 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:13

And Moses said unto the Lord
In an abrupt manner, as the following words show, his mind being greatly disturbed and distressed by the above threatening,

then the Egyptians shall hear [it];
that the Lord had smitten the Israelites with the pestilence; the Targum of Jonathan interprets it of the children of the Egyptians who were suffocated in the sea:

for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;
they were once sojourners among them, and slaves unto them, and they were delivered from them by the mighty hand of the Lord upon the Egyptians, destroying their firstborn; and therefore when they shall hear that the Israelites were all destroyed at once by a pestilence in the wilderness, it will be a pleasure to them, as follows.

Bamidbar 14:13 In-Context

11 And Hashem said unto Moshe, How long will this people treat Me with contempt? And how long will it be until they believe in Me, for all the otot which I have performed among them?

12 I will strike them down with dever (pestilence), and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

13 And Moshe said unto Hashem, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for Thou broughtest up this people in Thy ko’ach [might] from among them;)

14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land; for they have heard that Thou Hashem art among this people, that Thou Hashem art seen eye to eye, and that Thy Anan standeth over them, and that Thou goest before them, by day in an Ammud Anan, and in an Ammud Eish by night.

15 Now if Thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the Goyim which have heard the fame of Thee will speak, saying,